But my point being, this problem is not specific to the Glo, but to basically ALL of the Kobo products (original, Wifi, Touch, and Glo).

This problem is limited to the Glo. Just to test things out, I did a Factory Reset on my Touch and you have the option of connecting to your Kobo account or you can skip it. Realizing that the reset will wipe out any books on the device, all you need to do is have a copy of your books on an SD card which you can pop back in and you're good to go.

So this new 'innovation' has just recently been created for Glo owners.

This problem is limited to the Glo. Just to test things out, I did a Factory Reset on my Touch and you have the option of connecting to your Kobo account or you can skip it. Realizing that the reset will wipe out any books on the device, all you need to do is have a copy of your books on an SD card which you can pop back in and you're good to go.

So this new 'innovation' has just recently been created for Glo owners.

I'm not sure if this is true. I vaguely remember people having to put a fake registration into the database to be able to use their Touch without a Kobo account. Have you tried actually sideloading and reading books on the Touch after resetting and skipping the setup?

So this new 'innovation' has just recently been created for Glo owners.

Not really: this was introduced with one of the new firmware versions. I forget which one exactly, but I complained loudly when the change was made. Whether or not the touch works after a factory reset will depend on when it was made, and what version of the firmware was pre-loaded in the rescue partition.

Kobo doesn't really lock down the device though. There are instructions in the Direct Download Thread (Kobo developer forum) for faking a registration, if that's what you want. I'm only speculating, but I suspect this change was motivated by a large of number of calls to tech support with people unable to open their purchased books after having skipped registration.

remember, there are multiple ways to think of these devices. i primarily think of it as a device upon which to read files. the companies (amazon, b&n, kobo, sony, etc) primarily think of it as an interface for us to buy their files.

making us set up an account is merely part of their vision of what this device does. let's face it -- they make their money primarily off of sales of ebooks, not off the price of selling us the device.

That's all well and good. Except that, when you factor in tech support costs, how many ebooks does Kobo have to sell to pay for each ticket resolution generated by each unfortunate incident? And doesn't every Kobo ebook customer pay some of this price in the long run?

Nobody's hands are completely clean, but IMHO Kobo is improving the end-user experience (just slowly). I think they've heard loud and clear that installing and dealing with Desktop to get a device going was not gonna fly. I've set up a Nook Color out of the box and a Kobo Glo out of the box and Kobo customers have no idea how good they have it.

my kobo resets to firmware 1.9.14 (I think I have that right). This definitely doesn't need an online registration to use sideloaded epubs. Around the whole 1.9.17 disappearing top margin debacle I went through a a few cycles of factory resets and updating (largely because 1.9.14 doesn't have the wifi drivers) and would often not register so I wan't prompted to upgrade again.

1. I have a Glo. It came with 2.1.4 firmware which from a factory reset, asks for Language, then connect/setup via Computer or WiFi. You cannot skip this step, and it won't get past this, unless you register it.

2. You can add an entry to the internal SQLite database when connected to the computer, to fake the registration, and get a working, "registered", blank/ready to go Glo. (at this point, I would take a backup of the newly registered SQLite DB, and also install 2.1.5 firmware (latest at this point)).

You have to do this after any factory reset. I presume it is possilbe, if you are willing to take the internal micro-SD card out, to mount the backup/restore partition, and replace the default SQLite DB file in there, with your own (I'm thinking a copy of yours, just after you first registered it). That would solve the re-reset problem on the road, though you'd still have no books, unless you had a micro-SD card with books on it, with you.

I think, if I was going on holiday etc., I'd have my Netbook with me, and a good collection of the books I wanted to read that were on the Glo, also stored on the Netbook as well (and I'd probaly take a spare micro-SD card with me too). That way, I could easily recover from most things the unit was likely to throw at me. If I am away, and driving, I already do this, for my SatNav (i.e. have the software, maps, routes and a spare micro-SD card). Hell, I even have a spare SD card and battery for my camera too. Computing devices just are not reliable enough to treat like their "old world" equivalents (I backup my camera photos whilst on holiday, to my Netbook (and a spare 2.5" USB hard drive, also (call me paranoid ))

I'm thinking that a) no-one dies because they can't use an e-reader for a while, and b) the Internet is essentially everywhere civilized. If I were the Kobo Product Manager, I wouldn't waste a minute worrying about this one.

People here know I am an e-book aficionado, so they come to me for advice when they want to buy an e-book reader.
There are several devices I usually recommend, according to the needs of that person, but for Kobo I have invariably one advice: Do Not Buy.

One of several reasons is this arrogance of the real Kobo Product Manager.
He essentially tells you: "So, you have got this expensive device and now I am going to hold it hostage until you register". Well, dear Product manager go and ... oh wait, this is family friendly site, I can't finish that sentence.

Internet *is* essentially everywhere civilized. The problem is, that sometimes I go to places that are obviously no civilized. Or, they are so civilized they request a credit card, and of course payment of a hefty fee, before you are allowed to connect. I like to take my reader when I go camping for 9 days in summer. I like to take my reader when I go skiing for a week to a relatively remote mountain hotel. In the last few years I spent at least 30 days every year staying at places where an Internet connection is problematic at best. When I am on vacation I want to spend evening reading, not hunting for a hotspot in case I have to reset my reader.

I have another anecdote for the perspective Kobo Product Manager.
Recently I was in USA. I went to the BestBuy brick-and-mortar store to hunt for bargains. The first thing I wanted to see in BestBuy were e-ink readers. There were several models that I haven't had chance to try before. I saw Kindle PaperWhite, but the touch screen was malfunctioning and it was very frustrating experience. I saw Nook and I saw a very tempting little device - Kobo mini.
I wanted to buy it then and there. On the whim. I really liked the small size. I thought that being a hacker and geek I would be able to overcome possible software problems. But first I needed to see how it displays books. So I switched it on. It kept asking me to plug it into a computer or to provide it with a working WiFi. I tried for several minutes, but it was hopeless. I asked several BestBuy employees for help. To no avail. When I came back to the same store three weeks later I was welcomed by the same broken Paperwhite and the same pathetic Kobo Mini begging to be connected to the net so it could display a simple text file. I do not think many people bought the device. I didn't.

Yeap, I've encountered that type of problem on a Touch while out for a day. The problem is frustrating to say the least because both the registration and books have to be reloaded. No Internet. No computer access. The thing is a brick.

That was in the middle of a busy city.

I'm not sure if this will work on a Glo, but you can insert a fake registration by following these instructions:

Perhaps you can also backup the whole sqllite database and copy back in case you have a pc but no internet? Is it a problem when copy an "old" database on the kobo while epub files have changed?

I have done it. Any new books sideloaded will be added when the device is disconnected. Books removed will probably still be listed. Trying to open one generally causes the device to hang and has to be powered off. After that, the database is cleaned of those books.